"Are you kidding?" Simi rested her chin in her hand and looked up at him. "You boring people. A demon needs her cable.Akri done tricked me. He didn't tell me I'd have to go without cable. Don't you even have one of those itty-bitty TVs that has batteries?"
Yeah and on that note, he pulled Astrid away from Simi.
"It won't work," she whispered.
"What?"
"Pulling me away so she won't hear. She hears everything."
He stopped. "Well, then, she's in for an earful."
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) Zarek stood there looking at Astrid. Memorizing every line of her face, every curve of her body.
He didn't know what to do to protect her. Jess couldn't come get her in the daylight and he didn't trust the Squires to get her to safety, either.
Not to mention the idea of letting them know of his hideout while they were out to kill him themselves didn't seem like a brilliant move either.
There was no one to trust and the only way he knew to protect Astrid was to call Thanatos out and finish this.
Tonight, he would find Thanatos and one of them would die.
It was something he didn't want to tell Astrid. She wouldn't let him go if she knew.
"Look, we'll need food tonight. I'm going to leave you and Simi here where it's safe and I'll go scout supplies."
"Why not send Simi? Nothing can hurt her."
Zarek slid his glance over to the demon, who was playing This Little Piggy on her bare toes.
"Yes, but I don't think she should be let out on her own, do you?"
Astrid hesitated. "You may be right."
Zarek sank to the floor and pulled her down with him. He checked his watch to see that it was less than two hours to sundown.
Less than two hours to be with the woman who had come to mean so much to him.
Lying down, he closed his eyes as she laid her head on his chest and traced circles over him.
"Tell me something good, princess. Tell me what you'll do when this is over."
Astrid stopped moving her hand in circles as she thought about that. What she wanted was to stay with Zarek. But how?
Artemis would have to let him go and she knew her cousin well enough to know Artemis didn't share her toys.
"I'll miss you, Prince Charming."
She felt him tense at that. "Will you really?"
"Yes, I will. What about you?"
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"I'll survive. I always do."
Yes, he did. In ways that astounded her.
Astrid traced the line of his jaw. "You should be resting."
"I don't want to rest. I just want to feel you for a little while."
She smiled at that.
"Are you two going to kiss?" Simi asked. "Maybe I should go upstairs or something."
Astrid laughed. "It's okay, Simi. We won't kiss in front of you."
"Does she sleep?" Zarek asked.
"I don't know. Simi, do you sleep?"
"Yes, I do. I have a lovely bed, too. It got dragons carved on it and this big old ivory-colored canopy over the top.Akri had it special made for me long time ago and it has a windup dancer on the headboard.
When I was a baby demon,akri would wind it up after he tucked me into bed and I used to watch it until I went to sleep. Sometimes he would sing lullabies to me, too.Akri a good daddy. He takes good care of his Simi."
"What about you, princess?" Zarek asked. "Did your mother tuck you in as a child?"
"Every night, unless she was judging someone and then my sister Atty would.
"
Astrid didn't ask Zarek who tucked him in. She already knew the answer to that.
No one.
She snuggled closer to him.
Zarek stared up at the jagged top of the tunnel. Funny how more than fifty years ago he'd dug this part of it never knowing that one day he would lie here with a lover by his side.
Astrid.
He had no business being with her. No right to touch her.
She was as close to heaven as a man like him was ever going to get.
And yet he didn't want to give her up. Not now.
Not ever.
She was the one person in all of history he would die for.
No doubt tonight he would.
Chapter 14
Thanatos lay on a warm, comfortable bed in the house of a Spathi warrior. The Spathi, like the Spathi's family members (both Daimons and Apollites), were all asleep in their bedrooms, waiting for sundown when it would be safe to go out.
After he had lost Zarek's trail last night, Thanatos had searched until exhaustion overtook him.
The Daimons had brought him back here to rest, and though he was still tired, he couldn't sleep
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) anymore. Not while his nightmares racked him.
He could feel the call of the Oracles trying to summon him back to his cage in Tartarus.
He refused to heel.